Woody's Words

A LETTER FROM JAMES Chapter 4 - PART 3 11 Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you. 12 God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor? (James 4:11-12 – NLT) What James may well be dealing with here is the temptation common to humanity, that of slander and gossip. Both the old and new testaments have dire warnings to those who choose, of their own volition, to indulge themselves in this sin. I will not tolerate people who slander their neighbors. I will not endure conceit and pride . (Psalm 101:5) Bear in mind that James has commenced this chapter by addressing what appears to be tension and conflict within the early church. Nothing destroys a fellowship or community quicker that s...

A LETTER FROM JAMES Chapter 4 - PART 2 4 You adulterers! Don’t you realise that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. 5 Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him. 6 And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:4-6 – NLT) When James says: You adulterers! It is in reference to our faithfulness to God. The previous verses have dealt with our selfish desires and our self-deception and now James wants to deal with our loyalty and faithfulness to God. He is quite adamant that there can be no double standard; either we belong to God in totality, or we belong to this carnal world. It is a very black and white scenario and there can be no grey area here. If we vacillate in any w...

THE REAL DANGER OF PERIPHERAL THEOLOGY By David Woodbury Over the last century, the world has seen a tidal wave of theological writings that are unparalleled in Christian history, some scholarly, some amateur, some just plain crazy. While books on theology have been available since the printing press was invented, the late 20 th century saw an explosion in theological writings as printing and book distribution became cheaper and more efficient. The arrival of the computer and Internet age further exploded the information revolution with blogs, chat rooms, online books and journals being freely and cheaply available. Unfortunately, Christians, like most of humanity are always on the lookout for a new novelty, a new idea, a new slant on their way of thinking. The reality is that in this hi-tech Information age we are inundated with new and novel ideas and far too easily distracted and turned aside, from that which is fundamental and essential to our relationship with Go...

Meaningful Christian ministry Part 2 By David Woodbury Those who are sent are sure of their calling. Now there is a balance here which those in Christian ministry must work towards. Much damage has been done within the church by those in ministry having an air of arrogance about their ministry. Often it is camouflaged by a holy persona and to challenge their arrogance is often a difficult task. Those in ministry must work hard at an experience of authentic Christlike humility. Having an unwavering sense of destiny about Christian ministry will give us divine confidence as opposed to human arrogance. Those who are sent are intent that others may know the reality of God. As we have discovered the primary task in Christian ministry is the proclamation of the good news and part of that is helping people come to know and understand that God does indeed exist and that he exists for them personally. This is not an easy task as no one can really prove the existence of God...

A LETTER FROM JAMES Chapter 4 – Part 1 What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? 2 You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. 3 And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure. (James 4:1-3 –NLT) We have no way of knowing if James if addressing problems in a certain church or whether he is dealing with a more general problem in the wider church. Once again he is not pulling any punches and confronting the issues head-on. In the previous chapter, he has confronted some significant failings in a very direct manner and once again he doesn’t mince words and deals with the basic sinful motivation of humanity. Th...